Business as Mission - Dialogue on the Web
A generation of businessmen and women fill the seats of our churches on Sunday morning with unrealized dreams to do something significant with our passions and skills to make a dent in this crazy world. For some that spirit of adventure has been buried under several years of burnout in corporate America. The daily grind for more numbers to satisfy shareholders and line the pockets of the corporate executives has worn us thin. We are looking for something more, something different…
“Business as Mission” is the phrase that has grown to describe a generation of pioneers that are on the front lines of a new phase in the church and in the world. This movement hasn’t been birthed in the seminaries or the Bible colleges. It has been birthed in the board rooms and the breakfast meetings of the corporate businessman and woman who have the passion to get their hands dirty and do something for the kingdom. It isn’t about being business to get access to a country, or a coffee shop to have a storefront to share the gospel while losing money on the business.
“Business as Mission” is about leveraging the experience in the corporate world for the sake of the kingdom. It isn’t as much of a career change as it is a shift. It is taking experience in technology and management to start an outsourcing firm in India that provides jobs for 300 people so you can create an environment to share Christ with your employees in both words and deed. It is starting a successful Tex-Mex restaurant in Romania that creates jobs in a weak economy while developing respect from counterparts and government officials in the community. It is doing all of this with the ethics, and the commitment to Christ.
This new idea of Business as Mission is simply stated is the idea of starting businesses overseas that are profitable, self sustaining, and have the commitment to make a spiritual impact in focused areas of the world. Some of those are here in cities like Dallas, Atlanta, or Grand Rapids. Others may be in the far corners of Romania or China.
My passion is to cast a spotlight on these opportunities for businessmen to use their competitive nature and entrepreneurial drive for Christ.
Justin Forman of rightnow.org
Business as Mission Blog: http://www.businessasmission.blogspot.com